Mandala Monday ~ Christmas Gifts

Happy Mandala Monday!  I just thought I would share a few photos of the lovely mandala coasters and set of magnets I got this past Christmas from my nephew and my sister. They’re so delightful and they make me happy – (the gifts and my fam 😉)!

I had both of these things on my Amazon wishlist and was so excited to receive them!  One of my love languages is gifts, so I always feel extra loved when people give me gifts.  Granted, it is a common tradition to exchange gifts at Christmas time – especially with family, but it still makes me feel extra special whenever I receive a gift!

Here is a stock photo I stole off of the Amazon listing so you can see all the great mandala designs on the coasters.  They’re all so pretty, it’s hard to chose a favorite…

And those coasters will come in handy while I’m drinking all of the fruit-infused water concoctions that I’ve set my mind to making in the new year.  The color of this one looks especially yummy doesn’t it?  Strawberry, blackberry and pineapple. Mmm so refreshing…

🍹

The magnets are such darling little things!  They were tricky to photograph because they’re only about the size of a quarter and have a glossy finish, so these are a bit blurry…

These will come in handy too, as my sweet Granddaughter loves to draw, color and paint pictures for me to display on my refrigerator.  Maybe I’ll have some to display from my Grandson one day too.  We’ll have to wait and see if he enjoys art, as he is only one year old, but he seems to like being involved in anything and everything that his big sister is doing.

Speaking of my Grandchildren…

I could share hundreds of photos I snapped of them over the holidays, but I’ll spare you from all the scrolling.  I do love these ones of the two of them though, because of the warm, loving memories I have of them helping me decorate my tree…

My Granddaughter always insists on wearing her ‘strawberry dress’ (which is too small), whenever she comes over.  But it makes her happy, so we just let her. Even though it’s winter. 🙃

🎄❤

And I’ll share this one too, because of the pure and simple joy of it…

Oh, how I love my Daughter and my Grandchildren! 💕

And while we are on the subject of children (and this looks like it’s for children), and it’s Mandala Monday, one other mandala-themed gift I received this Christmas was this mandala sidewalk chalk stencil kit from my mom…

Another stock photo, but that can’t be helped – it’s winter right now and everything is covered with snow, so I can’t exactly take it out and play with it just yet.  Maybe for a future mandala Monday…

I hope your Monday is off to a good start!  Wishing you beauty and inspiration today and in the coming week!

 

 

✿~Peace & Love~✿

M is for Mom

Back in the summer of 2012 when my daughter and I were preparing to move in with my mom after my divorce and my Dad’s passing in 2011, and the three of us were busy at work remodeling the upstairs bedrooms, we came across tons of old family heirlooms that have been stored here over the years.  I already love antiques, but it was extra cool to see antiques belonging to my own family.           (I wrote about it here:  https://ramblingsfromjewels.wordpress.com/2012/07/15/relocating-redecorating-readjustments-cool-old-stuff/)

While going through them all, I was thinking that it would be really nice if we could find a way to use or display some of them, rather than just pack them all away again somewhere.  Especially as we are combining our family once again, and now adding my daughter to the generations of my family that have lived in this house, it would be nice to do something special to symbolize that using some of these family heirlooms.  But in being so busy just trying to get the house ready for us to move in, that thought would have to be put on hold and revisited at a later time.  So we organized, labeled and boxed them all up, along with a few treasured items of my Dad’s, and stored them all in a special place down in the basement.

Now, two years later, and with Mother’s Day right around the corner, I got to thinking about all of the antique jewelry we had found back then, and remembered an idea I had seen online using vintage jewelry to create a plaque of the letter “M.”

I absolutely love this idea!  Wish I had come up with it myself.  😉

(If you click on the photo it will bring you to the Etsy shop of the person who I got the idea from.)

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But I did expand a bit on the design concept with the one I created…

I mounted it on handmade paper, and the border you see around the edges is from some very old linoleum (early 1900’s) that we found adhered to my Mom’s bedroom floor when we tore out the carpeting in her room during the remodeling.  I thought it was so cool looking and saved pieces of it.

I wrote about it here:   https://ramblingsfromjewels.wordpress.com/2012/07/29/relocating-remodeling-readjustments-ceilings-and-carpets-and-floors-oh-my/

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And because this particular vintage jewelry belonged to not only my Mom, but also her Mom, and both of her Grandmas, I wanted it to be protected under glass to keep it from collecting dust and also from deteriorating.  My sister and I went out together and found a great shadow box type of frame that worked perfectly for it!

Unfortunately, the glass is highly reflective, so getting a decent photo of it all finished was a bit of a challenge.  You’ll just have have to take my word for it that it looks gorgeous under there!  To make it even more special for my Mom, I also included one piece of my own jewelry and one piece of my sister’s.  ❤

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Needless to say, when I gave this to her this morning, she loved it and we all had a good cry.  M is for Mom, but it’s also for Marie, Margaret and Mary ~ my Mom, her Mom, and one of her Grandma’s names, who’s jewelry this is.  So “M” represents them all.

Thanks so much for allowing me to share this with all of you!  Wherever you are, and whatever the day, may it be happy, beautiful and blessed!  🙂

We are heading out to breakfast and then off to garden nurseries for the day, as is our Mother’s Day tradition.  Hopefully the rain holds off…

 

 

✿~Peace & Love~✿

Black Friday

Ew it’s Black Friday.  Absolutely NOTHING could drag me out to the stores today, there is nothing I want or need bad enough, no sale good enough, that could make me subject myself to the torture of this shopping day.  Well, maybe if I needed toilet paper, but that would be about it.  😉  My daughter went out shopping one year for Black Friday with a friend of hers and basically had her life threatened over a parking space.  Yikes!  I know right?!

Sometimes I feel like I am the only woman on the planet who hates shopping, but I really do.  And I don’t really understand the whole fascination with shoes thing either.  Purses maybe (I love a cute purse), but shoes?  So confining, I’d rather go barefoot.

I do like giving though, but it has to be a meaningful gift.  The price is irrelevant, I’d spend $500 just as easily as $5, as long as it’s something special and was within my means.  I like having an excuse to give such as Christmas, a birthday or other special occasion, but the ones that are for no reason are what really tickle my fancy.  I have always loved Christmas, and I won’t propose to tell anyone what the season is about because it’s different for everyone, but I hate all of the commercialism and hype that surrounds the holidays, and if you read my last post you know I especially hate television commercials and all of the garbage that goes along with them.  Something indeed is seriously messed up there.

That being said, hey, if you happen to be one of those women who likes shopping today, no judgement here, by all means knock yourself out, enjoy the thrill of the hunt, have fun, hope you score some great items for you and yours, but please do try and keep things in perspective and mind your manners not to trample anyone along the way.  😉

Count me out, I’ll be at home eating leftovers…